Appliances such as portable fans, heaters, radios, etc., are normally manufactured with a protective grill which serves to prevent an individual from coming in contact with the internal appliance components while, nevertheless, providing openings for the moving air or sound to travel therethrough. Protective grills for fans and heaters were initially made of materials such as steel, brass, wood etc. These materials are formed into wire and/or otherwise bent and formed so as to form a protective grill that is sturdy and pleasing in appearance. Passages are formed inbetween the formed materials that are sufficiently large to allow the free movement of air and/or sound. Nevertheless, the passages effectively prevent someone handling the appliance from inadvertently inserting their fingers therethrough. An example of a grill used as a fan blade protective grill and made of steel wire is shown in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 173,550.
More recently, most protective grills have been manufactured with plastic materials and formed by injection molding methods. These grills normally have plastic ribs that serve the same purpose as the formed materials and wire in the prior grills. The injection molded plastic protective grills are also generally inexpensive to manufacture and function sufficiently well for their intended purpose. Examples of such plastic protective grills are shown in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 300,847, U.S. Pat. No. 324,907 and Design U.S. Pat. No. 323,708.
Substantial time and expense, however, is required for producing the tooling used during the injection molding process for forming the protective grills. In addition, the more aesthetically pleasing three-dimensional protective grills are complex and intricate and require complex and intricate tooling. As can be appreciated, although the aesthetically pleasing three-dimensional shaped protective grills are more desirable, the tooling therefor requires more time to manufacture and are generally more expensive than the tooling for simpler two-dimensional or single plane protective grills.
Accordingly, a need exists for a protective grill that may be manufactured by injection molding and which is both functional for its intended purpose and aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, a need exists for a protective grill having the appearance of three dimensions but having the lower tooling costs involved in producing two-dimensional or single plane protective grills.